Wednesday, 19 October 2016

Nigeria Eyes $1billion Annually from Digital Switch Over

The Federal Government is expected to generate over $1billion (about N450billion) annually following the successful transition of Nigeria’s broadcast from analogue to digital broadcasting.

Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed on Tuesday, October 18, assured of the current administration's resolve to meeting the new deadline of June 2017 for the country to transit from analogue to digital broadcasting.

While declaring open the 11th Biennial Conference of Africa Broadcasters (Africast) in Abuja, the minister said the opportunities of digitisation are almost limitless as it will also help create jobs for the youths, increased revenue, and raise the number of the current 450 TV stations in the country.

“The digitisation of broadcasting offers Nigeria a lot of opportunities; the benefits are multifaceted and very far-reaching – in the areas of economics, politics, education, entertainment, science and technology and several others.

“Many have said that the impact of digitisation on television will be revolutionary and I cannot agree less,’’ the Minister said.

According to him, "The regulators of broadcasting in Africa must begin to envisage and appropriate the larger implications of the roll out of these platforms. Africa must ensure that our media continues to serve its peoples in terms of security, economic well-being and technological advancement. We need to be literate in the emerging technological platforms and understand them before we can apply them.

He addede that "the Federal government's idea of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) is one in which there is free digital TV service called FreeTV - based on Freeview rather than requiring pay TV subscriptions. Therefore, the government is providing support to ensure that the FreeTV Set–Top-Boxes, also called decoders, are affordable at a retail price of N1,500 ($7.50)."